Power Play

Familiar faces in this film (Hemmings, Pleasance, O'Toole) help to get a Western audience to empathise with what it's like to live under a totalitarian regime. Our sympathies are with the heroes as they move towards a coup d'etat (an odd one in which the military intends to replace a more repressive regime with one less so). However not every conspirator's motives are the purest...

When I first saw this movie about ten years ago, I was blown away by it. On subsequent viewings, its flaws have become more apparent -- most of the characters are flatly written, a few of the minor roles are poorly played. However, the film still remains a worthy effort. Whereas most political films only pay lip service to ideological concerns, Power Play actually attempts to examine both what it means to live in a totalitarian regime and how easily the best intentions can be subverted. The film has a fine lead performance from David Hemmings. While he at first seems to be flamboyantly overacting, Peter O'Toole eventually reveals the chilling truth behind his character's manner. Lastly, Donald Pleasence plays the head of the Secret Police but, as opposed to later performances, doesn't descend into camp and is a frightfully Himmleresque figure. The scenes where he tortures a young woman are disturbing and, thankfully, played for outrage than for exploitation. Powerplay features a downbeat ending but in the end, its the only honest way the film could end. Check it out if you get a chance.

Firstly I personally feel we need all the political films we can get, as they are somewhat far and few between.

The plot is believable if you relate it to something akin to the Portugal Coup in 1974, with the exception of the rather grim ending. This is also not too difficult to accept when looking at other events in the not so distant past.

One point of interest is the motivation of the concept, being a Canadian production may have been the now forgotten political kidnap of the British Government official James Cross by the Front de liberation du Quebec in 1970.

I think the dialogue is the weakest point but I can overlook the somewhat unconvincing conversations as some set pieces, like the Aldo Moro kidnapping and Chilean Secret Police style torture sequence are effective.

I read a TV review of this once that appeared to misunderstand what a coup involves, When the critic stated only one tank was blown up as if to highlight the low production values. The reviewer clearly missing the point entirely.

Disgusted at the behaviour of his corrupt government, Colonel Narriman (Hemings) agrees to lead a Coup D'Etat. The films follows the planning and delivery of the Coup with associated twists and turns.

An intriguing film, charting the thinking and action required to complete a Coup. Hemmings is really good in the lead with fine support from Morse as a moral driving force, Pleasence as the dreaded head of Security and O'Toole, in a supporting role as one of the key soldiers involved. There are issues however. It is rather dull to look at, the pace varies considerably, it clearly needed a bigger budget and towards the end looks cheap and the direction overall is flat and unimaginative. Worth catching though, it's different, well acted and definitely provides food for thought.

In this no doubt peculiar film that has a rather dated patina and production values that wouldn't bear scrutiny in today's world of slick multimillion endeavours however drove away at me and ended up surprising my, admittedly reduced expectations. There's a professional cast pulling out the stops to keep it going, and the way the story ended up left quite a visceral punch - even though the screenplay rather gives it away in the opening sequence in a chat show reminiscence by a witness, back in the real world, ie New York.

I like odd movies like this for the curveballs they can throw like the really confusing setting imagined for this country in convulsions. Where somewhere in Eastern Europe do all the military speak in rich English accents or American drawl and the character names seem so anglo-saxon? Where are there big sea freighters unloading British rail rolling stock? The little bit of folk music might have Balkan origin but where in Yogoslavia do they have so many sand dunes for the tank sequences? The 'terrorists' look like the young German Red Brigade or even Irish lackeys. The bit the few reviews can't fail to pick up is the faintly absurd torture of a young woman with electrodes attached to her nipples dispassionately supervised by the Blofelt-type Donald Pleasance (who is good here).

All the funny external elements are redeemed however I think by the seriousness of the whole thing and the repeated riff on home truths like perfectly understandable duplicity and cyclic violence that all such Coup-d'etat and by implication all revolutions can involve -despite best efforts from even good chaps. O'Tool's speech at the end about change and society is so deeply ironic and scary - be very scared of change old boy - a very British movie indeed.